News for Thursday 010313

By Dave Graichen

After months of rumors, it appears Cowboy Town finally may have a long-term owner. The former entertainment venue off Interstate 49 is being purchased by Sundrop Fuels, which is investing nearly half a billion dollars to develop a pilot plant for biofuel on adjacent land in Rapides Station. The Cowboy Town property includes nearly 28 acres and a building of approximately 200,000 square feet. Local real estate professional and talk show host Rod Noles reported a sale price of $2.5 million on his radio show Wednesday.

Louisiana Congressmen check in on their votes on averting the fiscal cliff.  Baton Rouge area Congressman Bill Cassidy says he voted "NO" to  the  11th  hour  deal,  because  it  does  nothing  to  get  the government's fiscal house in order. Quitman  Congressman   Rodney   Alexander  was  the  lone  Louisiana Republican in the House to support  the deal. Republican  Senator  David  Vitter  also  voted for the fiscal cliff deal, along with Democrats Mary Landrieu and New Orleans CongressmanCedric Richmond.

The Natchitoches Parish School Board has denied an application for a new charter school. The Mandelbrot Charter School was to serve a specific target group of at-risk middle school students. It was to be a Type 1 charter school,  a new start-up school authorized by the local school board. But the application was deemed inadequate by consultant firm hired by the School Board. State legislation that will provide vouchers to approved charter schools requires school boards to hire consultants to review applications.

State  Police  happily  report no fatal crashes occurred  during  the hours of the New Year's holiday.  There  was one fatal crash in East Feliciana Parish Monday afternoon, but none  on New Year's Eve night

or the overnight into New Year's day.

A major announcement will be made this afternoon at the former General  Motors' assembly plant in Shreveport. The Shreveport Times is reporting  the news conference is to announce the sale of the plant. The former G-M assembly plant closed its doors last August.

Bossier City Police say the woman who was run over by her own car in a grocery store parking lot should  fully  recover.   The  woman had parked  her  car,  but  her grandchild inside the vehicle put it  in reverse. When she ran around to try and stop the car, she apparently slipped and the car ran over her.  She suffered non-life-threatening injuries.

The president of the Louisiana Oil & Gas Association is slamming the new Matt Damon film, "Promised Land", saying  it paints an inaccurate  picture  of  hydraulic  fracking for oil & gas. LOGA  president  Don

Briggs says the movie is  a big PR tactic for environmentalists, who he says ignore factual data  that  shows fracking is not a source of contamination. He says the real facts  favor the energy industry, no

matter what story the movie tells.

The New  Year  is  off  to a violent start in New Orleans, with four people shot and two murdered  in  the  first  24  hours of 2013.

A feasibility study is set to begin  this  month  on  whether  a new concert  and event arena in Monroe would be a worthwhile investment. Mayor Jamie  Mayo  says  it will take about 90 days for a consulting

firm out of Jackson, Mississippi,  to  complete a study to determine whether the population of the Monroe area  can  help  sustain  a new arena.

Shreveport's own Lauren Vizza is in Las Vegas, gearing up for the 20-13  Miss America pageant. Vizza was crowned as Miss Louisiana last June.  She's optimistic that she could become the first from the Bayou state to  become Miss America. Vizza, who is a political science major at Louisiana Tech, says she's  looking forward to all the elements of the competition. The preliminary competition begins on January 8th with the live  televised finals on January 12 on A-B-C.

Legislation to prevent toxic drywall from entering U.S. retail markets  is on its way to the President for his signature. Senator David Vitter  authored the legislation, which he says is intended to protect consumers

from buying shoddy, unsafe product from overseas.

Authorities continue their search for a woman who escaped from a state  prison in St. Gabriel Parish Tuesday. Department of Corrections  spokesperson Pam LaBorde says 33-year-old Keana (key-ANNA) Barnes  remains at large, after scaling a prison fence--topped with razor wire. Barnes was serving 25 years for manslaughter.